1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an information processing apparatus which can communicate with a first image processing apparatus and a second image processing apparatus, and a recording medium which records a control method and program.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that an information processing apparatus such as a PC is connected to a Web server on a network and an operation screen provided by the Web server is displayed on the Web browser included in the information processing apparatus. In this case, the Web browser in the information processing apparatus requests the Web server the operation screen. In response to the request from the information processing apparatus, a Web application on the Web server transmits an HTML file for displaying the operation screen to Web browser in the information processing apparatus.
The Web browser in the information processing apparatus analyzes the received HTML file and displays the operation screen based on the description of the received HTML file. If a user uses the operation screen displayed on the Web browser to input an instruction, the Web browser notifies the input instruction to the Web server. The corresponding Web application on the notified Web server performs processing in accordance with the instruction.
Many current multi-function peripherals (MFPs) that include a scanner and/or a printer may include a Web browser as described above. The MFP may use the routine as described above to display an operation screen provided by the Web server on the Web browser of the MFP and receive instructions from a user. An instruction input on the operation screen by a user is notified by the Web browser of the MFP to the Web server. The notified Web server requests the execution of processing to the MFP in accordance with the instruction input from the user. The MFP in response to the request executes the requested processing. This may eliminate the necessity for holding the entire menu data for operating the MFP within the MFP, and the menu data may be changed only by changing the corresponding Web server.
An extension of the technology has been provided in which one job is cooperatively processed by a plurality of MFPs instead of only one MFP (for example, Japanese Patent Lad-Open No. 2006-203870).
However, according to the art in Japanese Patent Lad-Open No. 2006-203870, the MFPs may not accept the instruction for the next job until the job to be executed by the cooperative processing completes. In an example of cooperative processing to be executed between an MFP 1 and an MFP 2, it is assumed that a remote copy job is instructed to read a manuscript and generate image data in the MFP 1, transmit the image data to the MFP 2, and print it on the MFP 2. In this case, the processing to be executed in the MFP 1 is manuscript reading and image data transmission. The processing to be executed by the MFP 2 is image data printing. On an operation screen of the MFP 1, job status screen is continuously displayed until the remote copy job completes, that is, until the printing processing in the MFP 2 completes. Thus, until the job to be executed by the cooperative processing completes, the next job may not be instructed in the MFP 1.
On the other hand, if the operation screen shifts to a screen for an instruction relating to the next job when the processing to be executed by the MFP 1 ends, without waiting for the completion of the job to be executed by the cooperative processing, a user of the MFP 1 may not check the status of the job by the cooperative processing.